Happy 382nd b’day Chennai! GCC kickstarts week-long beautification initiatives as part of celebrations
CHENNAI: As Chennai celebrated its 382nd birthday on Sunday (August 22) with its annual Madras Day, the Greater Chennai Corporation, along with other organisations, kick started several beautification initiatives to honour the city’s glorious heritage.
Around 2,100 students also participated in an art contest.
“Several artists participated in a photography competition too. Even though the percentage of people who registered online was very less, artists and NGOs were seen partnering at the zonal level,” a Corporation official said. As entries for the Madras Day contest were open till midnight, many artists and students submitted their artworks, the official said, adding, city-based organisations planted saplings and conducted mass cleaning drives at slum and slum resettlement areas.
The official said the special programmes will continue for another week. “Corporate firms have also tied up with artists and organisations under CSR initiative. Wall
paintings came up in several areas while night shelters run by the Corporation were decorated and lit up.”
The civic body conducted a contest among architects over creating designs to upgrade unused spaces under bridges
and flyovers. The Corporation also initiated an exercise to vaccinate senior citizens at their homes on Sunday as part of celebrations. A special camp for slum residents was inaugurated at Moorthingar Nagar in Tondiarpet. “Tree saplings were planted in the Moorthingar Nagar Slum Board tenement area by ministers KN Nehru and PK Sekar Babu. Since May 7, 20,013 saplings have been planted by the civic body at 1,089 places while residents welfare associations and NGOs planted 3,599 and 13,918 saplings,” a Corporation press release said.
CM’s Madras Day greetings
Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday extended his ‘Chennai Day’ greetings to the people, saying, “Chennai holds many prides like Singara Chennai and a city which receives and allows visitors to grow. DMK, which contributed to the growth of the city with a long term version, would continue to do so.”
CHENNAI: With hotels witnessing increased footfall after the COVID hiatus, the Greater Chennai Corporation began monitoring such facilities for quality. Recently, the civic body conducted raids in hotels across the city and collected a penalty of Rs 52,000 from three hotels. “Zonal level teams for each of the 15 zones have been formed to check proper maintenance of storage of raw food items and processed foods. The raids were conducted to prevent the entry of dogs, cats and rats that pose health hazards to customers,” a statement said. An official said the hotel managers have been advised to follow safety measures while storing food items. Apart from penalising three hotels, 16 kg of unhygienic food items were seized from eight hotels. Notices have been served to the hotels.